History Breaking News from Amazon

According to a press release issued from the offices of Amazon, the giant online shopping center, the newest Kindle is now officially the “Bestselling Product in Amazon History.” A bit short on details, however, the press release did not specify exactly how many Kindle-Threes it sold to beat out the now second bestselling product in Amazon history, the last of the Harry Potter books, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Unfortunately, since Amazon never released how many of those Harry Potter books it sold to become Amazon’s bestselling product, we are still left in the dark about how many Kindle-Threes Amazon has sold.

In a moment of weakness quite out of character for the secretive Amazon executives they did tell the public in December 2007 that until that date over 12 million copies of all the seven Harry Potter titles had been sold at Amazon.

So now if we do the math we can figure that there were most likely more than one million, but less than 12 million Kindle-Threes sold at Amazon this year.

Genetic Code of Wild Strawberries Cracked

wild-strawberryScientists have cracked the genetic codes of wild strawberries, as well as a certain type of cacao used to make chocolate. The new information should help breeders develop better varieties of mainstream crops.

“Because farmers have been crossbreeding and hybridizing food crops for centuries to improve traits, they tend to have large complicated genomes but the wild strawberry’s is relatively small so we can get access to all of these useful genes comparatively easily,” said Dan Sargent of BBSRC Crop Science Initiative.

Todd Mockler of Oregon State University explained that “this will accelerate research that will lead to improved crops, particularly commercial strawberries. It could lead to fruit that resists pests, smells better, tolerates heat, requires less fertilizer, has a longer shelf life, tastes better and has an improved appearance.”

Amazing Innovations for 2010

1. Bionic legs were developed this year which can help paraplegics to stand up and walk. This device, called E-legs, is designed to help those who have been told that they will never walk again, to walk. Using sensors to interpret from the person to the electronic legs where the person wants to go, these legs can take him there.
2. Electric cars are beginning to make headway into the car marketplace, especially the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Bolt. There are still limitations like the price and the speed, but you can still just plug-in and go. Due to greater demand every car manufacturer has designed at least one model of these gas-saving wonders.
3. Apple’s iPad is one of the most popular new innovations of the past year. Steve Jobs called the iPad a truly magical and revolutionary product. This amazing device bridges the gap between laptops and smartphones, and in just the first month Apple sold over 1 million of these babies.

Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Pumpkin-soupNothing is more tasty and cozy than a bowl of fresh, steaming soup on a cold winter evening. Instead of making plain old vegetable or chicken soup, why not try something completely different? Here is a great recipe for a healthy, delicious pumpkin soup, perfect for the season:
¾ cup of water
1 small onion, chopped
1 can (eight ounces) pumpkin puree
1 cup unsalted vegetable broth
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup fat-free milk
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 green onion, chopped
In a large pan, heat ¼ cup of water over medium heat, and add onion. Cook until tender. Add the remaining water, pumpkin, broth, cinnamon and nutmeg, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for five minutes, and then stir in milk. Do not boil again. Ladle into individual bowls and sprinkle with pepper and green onion. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Three Fifteen-Minute-of-Famers for 2010

According to Andy Warhol, everyone at some point in their lives will experience ’15 minutes of fame.’ As we approach the end of the year Nifty Threads asks “Who were those lucky personalities in 2010 that received their 15 minutes of fame?”

1. Ever heard of Steven Slater? He experienced his 15 minutes when, as a JetBlue flight attendant, he lost his temper and deplaned only after first grabbing a beer and then deploying the emergency slide, his preferred way to exit the scene. After becoming an instant star as a ‘working class hero’ he was fired from his job and was summoned to court to explain his bizarre behavior. Now he has dreams of becoming a rap star.

2. Anna Chapman, ‘sex-symbol-for a day’ was accused back in June of working for the Russian’s as a spy while she dated New York’s pre-powerful crowd and held parties as a “foreign hostess with the mostest.” The media lavished some cute nicknames on her, including, “femme fatale,” “the modern day Bond girl” and “the stunning SoHo spy.”

3. My personal favorite momentarily famous person is not a person at all, but an octopus. Paul the Octopus, that is. This magical German mollusk was able to predict the winners of eight of the World Cup matches. How so? The competitors of each match offered the eight legged oracle a tidbit of food, and whichever snack he ate first was his pick to win. Quite amazing, but if you think you can get him to predict the upcoming winners in your own favorite competitive sport, or the stock market, you are out of luck. Poor Paul died this past October, of natural causes. He nevertheless has his place in history through T-shirts and a fun iPhone app.